Report: Britain to impose temporary cap on economic migrants from outside the European Union

Report: UK to impose temporary cap on migrants

LONDON — A newspaper is reporting that Britain’s new government intends to impose a temporary limit on the number of foreign workers from outside the European Union it allows into the country.

The Times said Home Secretary Theresa May will announce a maximum of 24,100 workers from outside the EU will receive permission to enter Britain between now and April 2011, when new immigration rules go into effect.

The Home Office had no comment on Saturday’s report, which said 54,500 economic migrants from outside the EU came to Britain last year.

Earlier this week, immigration minister Damian Green said the government planned to reduce migration levels back to 1990s levels — “to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands.”